Two of contemporary Nordic culture’s greatest talents meet for an internationally significant world premiere.
Winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize for Literature, Jon Fosse needs little introduction in the Norway where he was born and made his career - which started with studies at the university in Bergen, the city he now calls home. Fosse is Norway’s most respected literary figure, whose 2014 work Trilogy is a set of three novellas which poignantly evoke the haunting and mysterious love between Bergen residents Asle and Alida.
Danish composer Bent Sørensen, laureate of the so-called Nobel Prize for Composition, the Grawemeyer Award, writes haunting, beautiful music that has been described as being ‘constantly pulled between the magnetic poles of warm, Romantic tonality and rich atonality.’
The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Bergen National Opera are proud to present Asle og Alida, a major new opera in which Sørensen’s score sets Fosse’s libretto, and the Nordic region’s most significant operatic premiere since the turn of the decade.
A new production by Bergen National Opera, in collaboration with the Royal Danish Theatre (Det Kongelige Teater) in Copenhagen.
Presented by Bergen National Opera in collaboration with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Edvard Grieg Choirs
After the world premiere here in Bergen, Asle and Alida will be performed in Copenhagen in May and June 2025